WOW. Get this--I received a story and ALSO THREE TREATS this year! The main story is for The Sting, and the treats are The Exorcist (TV) and two for Trapeze! And they are all just what I wanted. Angst, but with happy endings everywhere! Pining! Protectiveness! Realizations! Caretaking! Love! And hot BSOs being hot but also tender with each other. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH.

I tell you, I am just wallowing around in this pile like I'm in a ballpit or a bouncy castle or something. Everything is fun and perfect for me and nothing hurts. \o/

1) First, the gift, for The Sting:

After the movie, Henry went off without Johnny, surely for excellent reasons. JUST KIDDING nope he had a whole other mindset, and in this story Johnny finds him, figures out his deal, and barges in to put a stop to it double-quick. Good job, Johnny:

The Way to Shake a Federal Warrant (5122 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Sting (1973)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Henry Gondorff/Johnny Hooker
Summary:

Well, that's one way to shake a warrant.

2) A treat for The Exorcist (TV):

Marcus and Tomas sharing beds: it's five times they shared a bed + one, but all of them take place in the same universe, in a gradual build to a warm and wonderful conclusion. Oh, MARCUS, you need so much comfort and luckily you will get (and give) it.

give your sleep a rest (5297 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Exorcist (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Marcus Keane/Tomas Ortega
Characters: Marcus Keane, Tomas Ortega
Additional Tags: 5 Times, Sharing a Bed, Pining, Hurt/Comfort, Visions, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

In retrospect, it was a wonder this hadn't happened sooner.

They'd been on the road, what, a month at least? Staying in the cheapest motels they could find, when they weren't put up in people's spare rooms or barns or garages. Not that Marcus was inclined to complain. Any night they weren't stuck trying to sleep in the truck was a good night.

But it still gave him a moment's pause when the motel clerk glanced up at him, snapped her gum, and said, "Just the one room, and it's a double bed. That okay with you?"

(Or: five times Marcus and Tomas shared a bed for various reasons, plus the time it was just because they wanted to.)

3) A treat for Trapeze:

A just-post-movie fixit, with Mike going off into the night and then of course Tino coming after him. Tino is the irresistible force AND the immovable object, so he has a good head start on getting through to Mike, who is futilely trying to protect Tino from (as Mike sees it) Mike himself. NO DICE, MIKE, YOU HAVE TINO TO DEAL WITH HERE.

falling is like this (4401 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Trapeze (1956)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tino Orsini/Mike Ribble
Characters: Tino Orsini, Mike Ribble
Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon Fix-It, Misunderstandings, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

He'd come to a stop a bit to one side of the flow of traffic, since he was far from the only person walking along the Place de la Concorde at this hour—far from the only person who'd paused to look out at the river, either, for that matter. As if from a distance, the sound of hurrying steps came toward him, and he eased out of the way further still; somebody in a rush, sure, and wanting to pass by everybody walking slower, and here he was standing in their road. "Pardon," he said, "j'm'excuse," keeping his head ducked low, wiping absently at his wet cheeks.

Except the footsteps didn't keep on. They scraped to a halt right there by him. And Mike knew, knew, even without looking up, and covered his face with his hand, twisting away, wishing for one grim fierce second that he'd thrown himself in the goddamn river without wasting any time.

"Hey, Mike," Tino said.

4) A treat for Trapeze:

Further down the road, seeing Mike and Tino's established relationship some time after an offscreen fixit. Tino has ambitions, and Mike can yell about it all he wants but will still always be there for Tino. And vice-versa. ♥

The Death-Defying Double Somersault of Love (3672 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Trapeze (1956)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Tino Orsini/Mike Ribble
Characters: Mike Ribble, Tino Orsini
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Sexual Content, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

They soared, always.

Edited after reveals: the author is franzeska, and she also added another vid-tidbit (...vidbit?), which is terrifying and brilliantly inevitable: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6YHlJX_uErpaDdzdUtuc2FYRGs/preview?pli=1 . \o/


Yaaaaay, it is Yuletide already! I was having dinner with family, and in the grand Yuletide tradition, toward the end of the evening I was desperately looking forward to hurrying home and ripping the figurative gift-wrap off the story for me:

In Time (2373 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Trapeze (1956)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tino Orsini/Mike Ribble
Characters: Tino Orsini, Mike Ribble
Additional Tags: Mildly Dubious Consent, Blackmail, Angst, Drunk Sex, Reconciliation
Summary: Mike is still an idiot. Tino is still unreasonably persistent.

WOOOO, SLASHCROBATS. \o/ Mike is trying so hard to be seedy and alienating and aggressive--but for sommme reason when presented with Tino's cheerful confidence and then his total trust, he cannot quite manage it. :D Their clocks keep the same time in many different ways. ♥

The author also included a link to a vid, believe it or not, which is a brassy, intense delight. OH, YOU BOYS. *hugs them* *clonks their adorable heads together*

I knew I forgot to mention something that struck me in the Yuletide tag set: someone who isn't me nominated Trapeze (link to my picspam/recap), the Technicolor emotional gorgeous sla-ha-ha-haaashy movie with Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster in a tempestuous circus romance! \o/

Hello! And thank you so much! I'm absolutely delighted you're here, in one of my beloved teeny-tiny fandoms. ♥

If more thoughts about my preferences would be helpful, ( here are some! )

If you're the sort of writer who'd like to hear a few more thoughts on my chosen characters, here they are. Along with the more soberly-written details, I also decided to address the question, "If we were watching it together, what are a few of the things I would grip your knee and squee about?"

Listed alphabetically, I requested ( I Spy, Peacemakers, Rubicon, and Trapeze. )

Anyway! Please use or disregard any of my blatherings as you see fit. Just have fun, write something you enjoy, and thank you very much! \o/

klia passed along the news that TCM is starting its memorial tribute of Tony Curtis movies early tomorrow morning (Sunday 5am US central time), beginning with Beachhead. I also wanted to mention that during prime evening viewing hours is a run of three EXCELLENT movies in a row, with a very high slash quotient indeed:

7pm (central): Sweet Smell of Success (1957), a dark, sharp, faaaantastic movie with Burt Lancaster as a twisted and powerful gossip columnist and Tony Curtis as a sleazily-ambitious press agent. Curtis specifically wanted to play against his nice-guy type, and he definitely does that here in stellar form.

8:45pm (central): The Defiant Ones (1958), with Sidney Poitier and Curtis as mutually-loathing convicts shackled together and on the run from a chain gang. Hatred turns to understanding turns to... well, watch it and see. And ohhhh, Sidney Poitier is absolutely luminous.

10:30 (central): Trapeze (1956), with Curtis as a young, starry-eyed trapeze artist who meets and woos the wounded, embittered, former trapeze-artist Lancaster. I have a giant picspam/recap of it here. To sum up: SLASHCROBATS. ♥

My, my. And that's only three out of many. The boy was some kind of slash magnet! Remind me to link you sometime to a few recaps I wrote for episodes of his 1971 show with Roger Moore, The Persuaders. ...oh, look, I just did. :D

In the summer of '06, sakana17 asked if I had ever seen a 1956 movie called Trapeze, and when I said I hadn't, klia showed me the Turner Classic Movies airing. After which I flailed over to amazon.co.uk and picked up the DVD (no region 1 release, wtf) because. GUH. YOW. Slashsplosion!

(EDITED TO ADD: There's a professional region 1 format out at last! It's a DVD-R created on demand, available from MGM via Amazon.com.)

Then last year, lamardeuse wrote about it in a post titled "Holy crap, now that's slash." Which, oh, my, yes it is. And yet, it's still surprisingly little-known, despite the eye-candy and the eye-fucking and the competence and the athleticism and the angst and the barely-subtextual Hot!Technicolor!Passion.

So I thought a picspam/re-cap might be nice, to spread the joy around. Beware: big old spoilers herein, and a giant post--I am all about the teal deer.

( This way to the slashcrobats! )

To sum up:


If you're interested in taking a look at the passionate, angsty, devoted, athletic, Technicolor slashcrobats, you should feel free to examine Exhibit A (avi.zip, 647.53 MB), or Exhibit B (mp4.zip, 965.44 MB), both lovingly crafted by marycrawford. Or, if you'd like to look into a DVD-type of exhibit (for instance, if you need English subtitles), drop me a line at dorinda at thechicagoloop dot net and let us discuss it.

(And hey, you know...this is totally the kind of pairing suited to writing/requesting for Yuletide, should that sort of thing float your boat...)